US-Korialstrasz is at 52% as of 11:22am server time (PST), with 84% Horde Participation

Games are not necessarily "easier" today. You are just a better player.
It takes more now to impress many gamers than it did 2-5 years ago, because so much has already been seen and done.
Many players expect to be wow'd with every release of a beloved franchise.
These are generally NOT the fault of the developers, but the fault of many players over-hyping and/or setting expectations too high.

It's kind of hard to believe that all the US servers have the same amount of participation based on server population with all of them so close together. I feel like Blizzard is upping it themselves behind the scenes.

What's the point of this if it's just a glorified timer for everyone playing? It's going to finish on Tuesday aka 1 week from launch, and then what? Exactly another week or two weeks for stage 2? I don't sense any sort of server progression here at all. It's a timer masked behind lies.